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McDonald’s Quarter Pounder gets an upgrade

McDonald's has announced plans to streamline its premium burger offerings by replacing their thick, pricey Angus Third Pounders with three new Quarter Pounders.

There are no plans to bring the new items, which will debut in the U.S. in mid-June, to Canada.

The company told Associated Press it has been testing the retooled Quarter Pounder, a top-selling item which had not been much tinkered with since it was introduced in 1971, for nine months.

“Once we created these burgers, we didn't see the need for the Angus line,” said Greg Watson, senior vice president of the menu innovation team at McDonald's USA.

Amidst speculation that the change was prompted by rising beef costs, Watson said that “price was not really a driver.” He conceded, however, that “the Quarter Pounder will be an even greater value than the Angus burgers” which sold for $4 to $5.

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“(The Quarter Pounder) has been a successful sandwich for them and it’s had its run and they are looking to re-emphasis the existing products they already have and not clutter the menu too much,” observed Technomic, Inc. analyst Darren Tristano.

The updated burgers will come with a new bun comprised of eight grams of whole grains and thicker apple wood-smoked bacon instead of the hickory-smoked bacon currently used, said AP.

It augurs to be a challenging year for an industry not expecting “real growth in the marketplace” this year, said Tristano.

“Our growth forecast is somewhere around three and a half per cent which is slightly above inflation; and it’s going to continue to be a shift in share and a battle for share in the marketplace and as McDonald’s competitors get better at advertising and innovation that could negatively impact them,” he explained.

“They’ve had a really strong run for ten years of positively increasing their sales and at some point that’s something that likely is going to flatten out. And the first four months of the year we’ve seen declining sales, not significantly, but it’s just a good indication that there are significant financial headwinds that they’re going into.”

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